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RELATED: The Best LEGO Accessories to Make Your Bricks Bend, Fly, and Move Brixo are curiously LEGO-like construction blocks — sorry, “LEGO-compatible” — that provide the electricity to animate your kid’s Brickenstein. They’re painted in shiny, non-toxic chrome and powered by built-in, low-voltage batteries. Brixio Connector Blocks form wire-free circuits into which Brixio Action Blocks are embedded to deliver LED light or motorized movements. Brixio Trigger Blocks are added to activate said movements via light, sound, and motion sensors....

I’m a little germophobic right now. Me and the rest of the world, right coronavirus? Nope! My kid’s preschool doesn’t seem to have got the message. The place isn’t like filthy but they are pretty sloppy with precautions. The school offers half-assed information about what they’re doing to keep kids safe. It all boils down to — not too much at all. No handwashing classes, no extra cleaning, no nothing but the information they copy and pasted from the state health site....

The other benefit of the plastic shield is that unlike many PPE dupes that people have been making, a plastic face shield can be washed and reused, making it a long-lasting alternative to an N95 or other official PPE materials. Polar released a video tutorial on how to make the shields, which only takes about two minutes of work. All you need is a 2-liter bottle, weather stripping, and string....

When people get sick they secrete different scents because their immune systems are in overdrive. This is typically emitted through bad breath, stinky urine, and odorous sweat. The ability to smell sicknesses is well-documented in animals, and dogs can reportedly smell cancer. Humans are capable of smelling sickness to varying degrees, but scientists broadly suspect that bad smells can signal a need for compassion and kindness, or initiate a disgust reaction that keeps us away from contagion....

Back in July, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued data and an easy-to-read map to show which areas in the country people need to continue to wear face masks when they’re in crowded situations or indoors — like at a coffee shop or the grocery store. Unvaccinated people should always wear masks indoors in public. But in some situations, fully vaccinated people can go mask-free. Fully vaccinated people are being asked to keep their face masks on when indoors only if they live in a place with “substantial” or “high” coronavirus transmission....

The Day Without Child Care is being organized by Community Change Action. “We are fighting for a world where parents, child care providers, and the early educators who support our children and their families live with dignity and respect — no matter their zip code or what they look like,” the website reads. As such, at least 400 day and child care centers are closed nationwide to strike the unmanageable working conditions for child care workers — and the conditions for the families who need to be served by those centers....

Plenty of worthwhile programs—free community college, paid family leave, Medicare expansion—didn’t make the cut. But if a bill that hews to the framework released by the White House yesterday is eventually passed into law, then the child tax credit, the monthly cash benefit to most parents that has lifted millions of children out of poverty, will survive for at least one more year. Here’s what parents need to know about the future of the policy that has dramatically cut child poverty in the United States....

For the second season in a row, the USDA Forest Service is selling Christmas tree permits through its website. Doing it this way makes the process more convenient for visitors to find a tree from their favorite National Forest and pick up a permit to be able to cut that tree down and take it home to decorate. “A memorable experience, cutting a holiday tree is a special tradition to share with family and friends while helping to maintain a healthy forest,” the USDA Forest Service says on its website....

The new Hatchimals CollEGGtibles are a little different from the originals. For one, they’re actually egg-sized this time. For another, instead of furry battery-powered birds that can peck its way out of a shell, they’re colorful plastic figures (tigers, cats, zebras) that belong to families with names like Giggle Grove, Lilac Lake, and Polar Paradise. Each family is identified by the speckles on its shell. Of course, Hatchimals CollEGGtibles animals still need help hatching....

But what of trust in vaccinations? Going into the pandemic, confidence in vaccinations was high — 77 percent of people polled in a 2018 U.S. survey approved of them. But still, the number was not as high as most medical experts would like and had slipped some 8 percent in the past decade. With so much riding on a vaccine to end a pandemic (even if it’s still a year out), will this trajectory reverse?...

While drug prohibition made research into psychedelics impossible for most of the 20th century, restrictions were lifted in the 1990s. Promising results already surfaced, including a pair of studies published in late 2016 showing that psilocybin use eased depression and anxiety for terminal cancer patients. As the medical director of the Heffter Institute, George Greer explores medical possibilities for psilocybin and other psychedelics. He believes the future of psychedelic research holds vast potential....

Confused about what’s going on? You’re not alone. We’ll keep this list updated to answer your most important questions about the COVID vaccines. What COVID Vaccines are Available? On August 23, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted full approval to the Pfizer vaccine, which will make it easier for vaccine mandates to be passed and could convince some vaccine-hesitant people to get their shot. Moderna has applied for full approval but has not yet received it....

Here’s What the Bans Are Really About and the murder of George Floyd.interrogating the role of race and racism in societythe 1619 ProjectNew York Times Five States Have Banned CRT And More Will Probably Come passed such laws America’s long history of structural racism These Bans Are Terrible For Kids told USA TodayZinn Education Projectwith these bills is that they could create a “chilling effect”in something like the Reconstruction era...

The first check that was signed into law by President Joe Biden as part of a series of COVID-19 relief bills was sent out on July 15. The direct cash payments are a first-of-its-kind benefit in the United States that should be made permanent, going out to the vast majority of American families and only phasing out for the ultra-wealthy. The CTC payments are based on 2019 and 2020 tax returns, and the income threshold is $75,000 for a single filer or $150,000 for a combined joint filer....

If you’re late to the party, here’s everything you need to know about these hilarious not-quite-kids books, and the origin story of the exhausted dad who wrote them. Fatherly recently caught up with Mansbach to talk about the release of all three books in one box set, the origin of the first book, and just how many f-bombs his kids drop on a daily basis. For those who may not know, briefly remind us of your origin story?...

Created in conjunction with Fred Rogers Productions, Daniel Tiger is generally a show that takes a beat when it comes to big feelings. Supervising producer Chris Loggins tells Fatherly that once it became clear that the pandemic was going to be around for an “unforeseeable amount of time,” they felt they had to do something to help kids who were dealing with massive amounts of disappointment over the way life has changed....

If passed in a form anywhere near what the resolution lays out, this budget would significantly improve the lives of millions of American families. It would amount to what Sanders calls “the most consequential piece of legislation for working people, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor since FDR and the New Deal of the 1930s.” Here’s what you need to know. What does the package contain? global warminguniversal pre-Kcommunity collegepaid family and sick leaveMedicare...

Picture it: Luke’s in his X-Wing, hurtling down the Death Star trench. He’s got to make this shot or the Rebellion is doomed. Darth Vader swoops in behind. Oh, no! R2 is hit! Luke turns around to make sure that R2 is okay. That’s what he’s supposed to do, right? Take care of the feisty robot. This story was submitted by a Fatherly reader. Opinions expressed in the story do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Fatherly as a publication....

The trend has gained traction thanks to a gang of YouTube videos that suggest looping something around the back of your teeth and tying it around the front can be just as effective as actual dental work. Shockingly, this isn’t the case. The American Journal of Orthodontics issued a report warning about the hazards of DIY braces, which include a decreased blood supply to the mouth, teeth discoloration, swelling and infection....

All dogs are descendants of wolves. But as domestic dogs became dependent on humans, they lost many of their wolf characteristics says Carlo Siracusa, director of the animal behavior service at the University of Pennsylvania’s Matthew J. Ryan Veterinary Hospital. And one major difference between modern wolves and dogs is in their parenting skills. For wolves, he said, parenting is a two-man job. “The unit structure of a wolf pack is the family,” Siracusa explained....